Monday, February 22, 2010

I've been into head shot's lately. What makes an interesting head shot is the expression and the light. When I have the time, I like to work on the lighting aspects of the head shot. I must say, I'm far from satisfied with these images. They're just the evolution of the process. I have figured out the traditional corporate head shot (above) but to take lighting a step further is a process of trail and error.

The top photograph is a traditional head shot that I made for a corporate client. I used four lights to achieve this shot. The other head shot is my brother-in-law Chris. His image was made using a three light set-up. I'm using a small Chimera soft box with a soft grid attached. The second and third lights are 7 inch reflectors with spot grids attached. The spot grids are 20 degree (back light) and a 10 degree (high and in front). It's a dramatic portrait but still is very basic at the core. I'm looking to raise the bar and this set-up isn't there yet.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I've always been interested in gold toning and split toning of silver gelatin prints. When working in a wet darkroom the process is extensive, time consuming and hard to repeat. I wanted to see if I could come close in the digital darkroom. People with a lots of Photoshop experience would look at this and say "no sweat". For me its still a constant learning curve.

How, did I do this? I did a lot of tweaking but this is it in a nut shell. From the original color image, I went to Hue / Saturation clicked on colorize and selected sepia. I adjusted the sliders to my liking and clicked OK. Then, I imported it into Lightroom and continued to make adjustments with the split toning sliders. I then adjusted vibrancy, saturation, and clarity. I adjusted the tone curve to increase contrast and then vignetted with the lens correction tool and the post-crop tool. I exported the image out of Lightroom and re-opened it in Photoshop. I did further adjustments with levels and curves and did a little Smart sharpening and sized it for the web. That's about it. Through a little experimentation and clicking around you can create interesting and beautiful effects.

About Me

Transformation is a photography blog that was created to show my personal and project work. Some of my fine art work is currently represented at the Tilt Gallery in Phoenix www.http://tiltgallery.com.
I feel it's important from time to time to revisit old passions and to enjoy the purity of photography. Yes, it's purely self-indulgent but it helps me satisfy the creative beast within.
When I started this blog, its purpose was primarily photojournalism since I was a photojournalist for 20 years and finally Director of Photography for the East Valley Tribune Newspaper. When that came to an end January 1, 2009 the blog was floundering and it was difficult to find purpose. In a way, I was trying keep one foot in the door as I was trying to hang onto my past.
I'm now moving forward. This is the photography I do for the purity of the art.
Thank you for your support and for viewing my blog. Feel free to leave a comment.
For my commercial work please visit,
http://bradarmstrongphotography.com/